Police in southern China on Tuesday, 24 April, captured a man suspected to have started a blaze in a karaoke TV lounge that killed 18 people, and injured five, shortly after authorities offered a reward for information on his whereabouts.
The fire in the city of Qingyuan in Guangdong province broke out just after midnight in a three-storey building, police said on their official account on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, adding that five people were injured.
The police, investigating the case as suspected arson, said they have captured the man, a 32-year-old surnamed Liu, in a nearby village. The five injured are undergoing treatment at a hospital, reported The New York Times.
The suspect in the arson case, Liu Chunlu... has been successfully captured.The police wrote on Weibo
A reward of 200,000 yuan ($31,676) had been offered to anyone who provided information leading to the capture. The New York Times, quoting the China News Service, a state-run news agency, said that the police in Qingyuan had blocked off roads to catch the suspect.
Reuters could not immediately reach police in Qingyuan by telephone to seek further comment.
The man had blocked the sole entrance of the KTV lounge with a motorbike before setting it ablaze, state broadcaster CCTV said in a Weibo post on social media.
The suspect had suffered burns to his waist, police added.
China has a patchy safety record on building regulations. Authorities in Beijing, the capital, launched a 40-day “special operation” targeting fire code and building safety violations after an apartment fire last November killed 19 people, almost all migrants.
In 2013, a fire at a poultry processing plant in the northeastern province of Jilin led to 121 deaths.
(With inputs from Reuters and The New York Times)
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